venerable stream, lay great fleets of vessels laden with rich merchandise. From the looms of Benares went forth the most delicate silks that adorned the balls of St. James's and of the Petit Trianon; and in the bazars, the muslins of Bengal, and the sabres of Oude, were mingled with the jewels of Golcondo, and the shawls of Cashmere. This rich capital, and the surrounding tract, had long been under the immediate rule of a Hindoo prince, who rendered homage to the Mogul emperors. During the great anarchy of India, the lords of Benares became independent of the court of Delhi; but were compelled to submit to the authority of the nabob of Oude. Oppressed by this formidable neighbour, they invoked the protection of the English. The English protection was given; and at length the Nabob Vizier, by a solemn treaty, ceded all his rights over Benares to the Company. From that time the Rajah was the vassal of the government of Bengal, acknowledged its supremacy, and sent an annual tribute to Fort William. These duties Cheyte Sing, the reigning prince, had fulfilled with strict punctuality.

Respecting the precise nature of the legal relation between the Company and the Rajah of Benares, there has been much warm and acute controversy. On the one side, it has been maintained, that Cheyte Sing was merely a great subject on whom the superior power had a right to call for aid in the necessities of the empire. On the other side, it has been contended that he was an independent prince, that the only claim which the Company had upon him was for a fixed tribute, and that, while the fixed tribute was regularly paid, as it assuredly was, the English had no more right to exact any further contribution from him, than to demand subsidies from Holland or Denmark. Nothing is easier than to find precedents and analogies in favour of either

view.

and forms were still retained, which implied that the heir of Tamerlane was an absolute ruler, and that the nabobs of the provinces were his lieutenants. In reality, he was a captive. The nabobs were in some places independent princes. In other places, as in Bengal and the Carnatic, they had, like their master, become mere phantoms, and the Company was supreme. Among the Mahrattas again, the heir of Sevajee still kept the title of rajah; but he was a prisoner, and his prime minister, the Peshwa, had become the hereditary chief of the state. The Peshwa. in his turn, was fast sinking into the same degraded situation to which he had reduced the rajah. It was, we believe, impossible to find, from the Himalays to Mysore, a single government which was at once de facto and de jure-which possessed the physical means of making itself feared by its neighbours and subjects, and which had at the same time the authority derived from law and long prescription.

Hastings clearly discerned, what was hidden from most of his contemporaries, that such a state of things gave immense advantages to a ruler of great talents and few scruples. In every international question that could arise, he had his option between the de facto ground and the de jure ground; and the probзbility was that one of those grounds would sustain any claim that it might be convenient for him to make, and enable him to resist any claim made by others. In every controversy, accordingly, he resorted to the plea which suited his immediate purpose, without troubling himself in the least about consistency; and thus he scarcely ever failed to find what, to persons of short memories and scanty information, seemed to be a justification for what he wanted to do. Sometimes the nabob of Bengal is a shadow, sometimes a monarch; sometimes the vizier is a mere deputy, sometimes an independent potentate. If it is expedient for the Company to Our own impression is, that neither view is correct. show some legal title to the revenues of Bengal, the It was too much the habit of English politicians to take grant under the seal of the Mogul is brought forward it for granted that there was in India a known and as an instrument of the highest authority. When definite constitution by which questions of this kind the Mogul asks for the rents which were reserved to were to be decided. The truth is, that during the in-him by that very grant, he is told that he is a mere terval which elapsed between the fall of the house of pageant; that the English power rests on a very difTamerlane, and the establishment of the British as- ferent foundation from a charter given by him; that cendency, there was no such constitution. The old he is welcome to play at royalty as long as he likes, order of things had passed away; the new order of but that he must expect no tribute from the real things was not yet formed. All was transition, masters of India. confusion, obscurity. Every body kept his head as he best might, and scrambled for whatever he could get. There have been similar seasons in Europe. The time of the dissolution of the Carlovingian empire is an instance. Who would think of seriously discussing the question, what extent of pecuniary aid and of obedience Hugh Capet had a constitutional right to demand from the Duke of Britanny, or the Duke of Normandy? The words constitutional right,' had, in that state of society, no meaning. If Hugh Capet laid hands on all the possessions of the Duke of Normandy, this might be unjust and immoral; but it would not be illegal, in the sense in which the ordinances of Charles the Tenth were illegal. If, on the other hand, the Duke of Normandy made war on Hugh Capet, this might be unjust and immoral; but it would not be illegal in the sense in which the expedition of Prince Louis Bonaparte was illegal.

Very similar to this was the state of India sixty years ago. Of the existing governments not a single one could lay claim to legitimacy, or plead any other title than recent occupation. There was scarcely a province in which the real sovereignty and the nominal sovereignty were not disjoined. Titles

It is true, that it was in the power of others, as well as of Hastings, to practise this legerdemain; but in the controversies of government, sophistry is of little use unless it be backed by power. There is a principle which Hastings was fond of asserting in the strongest terms, and on which he acted with undeviating steadiness. It is a principle which, we must own, can hardly be disputed in the present state of public law. It is this-that where an ambiguous question arises between two governments, there is, if they cannot agree, no appeal except to force, and that the opinion of the strongest must prevail. Almost every question was ambiguous in India. The English government was the strongest in India. The consequences are obvious. The English government might do exactly what it chose.

The English government now chose to wring money out of Cheyte Sing. It had formerly been convenient to treat him as a sovereign prince; it was now convenient to treat him as a subject. Dexterity inferior to that of Hastings could easily find in that general chaos of laws and customs, arguments for either course. Hastings wanted a great supply. It was known that Cheyte Sing had a large revenue,

In 1778, on the first breaking out of the war with France, Cheyte Sing was called upon to pay, in addition to his fixed tribute, an extraordinary contribution of £50,000. In 1779, an equal sum was exacted. In 1780, the demand was renewed. Cheyte Sing, in the hope of obtaining some indulgence, secretly offered the governor-general a bribe of £20,000. Hastings took the money; and his enemies have maintained that he took it intending to keep it. He certainly concealed the transaction, for a time, both from the council in Bengal, and from the Directors at home; or did he ever give any satisfactory reason for the concealment. Public spirit, or the fear of detection, however, determined him to withstand the temptation. He paid over the bribe to the Company's treasury, and insisted that the rajah should instantly comply with the demands of the English government. The rajah, after the fashion of his countrymen, shuffel, solicited, and pleaded poverty. The grasp of Hastings was not to be so eluded. He added another £10,000 as a fine for delay, and sent troops to exact the money.

29

and it was suspected that he had accumulated a trea- | not to be put off by the ordinary artifices of eastern He instantly ordered the rajah to be sure. Nor was he a favourite at Calcutta. He had, negotiation. when the governor-general was in great difficulties, arrested, and placed under the custody of two comcourted the favour of Francis and Clavering. Has- panies of sepoys. In taking these strong measures, Hastings scarcely tings, who, less we believe from evil passions than from policy, seldom left an injury unpunished, was showed his usual judgment. It is probable that, not sorry that the fate of Cheyte Sing should teach having had little opportunity of personally observing neighbouring princes the same lesson which the fate any part of the population of India, except the Benof Nuncomar had already impressed on the inhabi-galees, he was not fully aware of the difference between their character and that of the tribes which intants of Bengal. habit the upper provinces. He was now on a land far more favourable to the vigour of the human frame, than the Delta of the Ganges; in a land fruitful of soldiers, who have been found worthy to follow EnHis glish battalions to the charge, and into the breach. The rajah was popular among his subjects. administration had been mild; and the prosperity of the district which he governed presented a striking contrast to the depressed state of Bahar, under our rule-a still more striking contrast to the misery of The national and religious prethe provinces which were cursed by the tyranny of the nabob vizier. judices with which the English were regarded throughout India, were peculiarly intense in the metropolis of the Brahminical superstition. It can therefore scarcely be doubted that the governor-general, before he outraged the dignity of Cheyte Sing by an arrest, ought to have assembled a force capable of bearing down all opposition. This had not been done. The handful of sepoys who attended Hastings, would probably have been sufficient to overawe Moorshedabad, or the Black Town of Calcutta. But they were The money was paid. But this was not enough. unequal to a conflict with the hardy rabble of Benares. The late events in the south of India had increased The streets surrounding the palace were filled by an the financial embarrassments of the Company. Has-immense multitude; of whom a large proportion, as The English tings was determined to plunder Cheyte Sing, and, is usual in upper India, wore arms. The tumult befor that end, to fasten a quarrel on him. According-came a fight, and the fight a massacre. ly, the rajah was now required to keep a body of officers defended themselves with desperate courage cavalry for the service of the British government. against overwhelming numbers, and fell, as became He objected and evaded. This was exactly what them, sword in hand. The sepoys were butchered. the governor-general wanted. He had now a pre- The gates were forced. The captive prince, neglected text for treating the wealthiest of his vassals as a by his jailers during the confusion, discovered an outcriminal. 1 resolved,' these are the words of Has-let which opened on the precipitous bank of the Gan tings himself, to draw from his guilt the means of re-ges, let himself down to the water by a string made of her to the Company's distresses-to make him pay the turbans of his attendants, found a boat, and eslargely for his pardon, or to exact a severe vengeance caped to the opposite shore. for past delinquency.' The plan was simply thisto demand larger and larger contributions, till the rajah should be driven to remonstrate, then to call his remonstrance a crime, and to punish him by confiscating all his possessions.

If Hastings had, by indiscreet violence, brought himself into a difficult and perilous situation, it is only just to acknowledge, that he extricated himself with even more than his usual ability and presence of mind. He had only fifty men with him. The Cheyte Sing was in the greatest dismay. He building in which he had taken up his residence was offered £200,000 to propitiate the British government. on every side blockaded by the insurgents. But his But Hastings replied, that nothing less than half a fortitude remained unshaken. The rajah from the million would be accepted. Nay, he began to think other side of the river sent apologies and liberal ofof selling Benares to Oude, as he had formerly sold fers. They were not even answered. Some subtle Allahabad and Rohilcund. The matter was one which and enterprizing men were found who undertook to could not be well managed at a distance; and Has-pass through the throng of enemies, and to convey the intelligence of the late events to the English cantings resolved to visit Benares. tonments.

Cheyte Sing received his leige lord with every mark of reverence; came near sixty miles, with his guards, to meet and escort the illustrious visiter; and expressed his deep concern at the displeasure of the English. He even took off his turban, and laid it in the lap of Hastings-a gesture which in India marks the most profound submission and devotion. Hastings behaved with cold and repulsive severity. Having arrived at Benares, he sent to the rajah a paper containing the demands of the government of Bengal. The rajah, in reply, attempted to clear himself from the accusations brought against him. Hastings, who wanted money and not excuses, was

It is the fashion of the natives of India to wear large ear-rings of gold. When they travel, the rings are laid aside lest they should tempt some gang of robbers; and, in place of the ring, a quill or a roll of paper is inserted in the orifice, to prevent it from closing. Hastings placed in the ears of his messengers letters rolled up in the smallest compass. Some of these letters were addressed to the commanders of the English troops, One was written to assure his wife of his safety. One was to the envoy whom he had sent to negotiate with the Mahrattas. Instructions for the negotiation were needed; and the governor-general framed them in that situation

of extreme danger, with as much composure as if he had been writing in his palace at Calcutta.

Things, however, were not yet at the worst. An English officer of more spirit than judgment, eager to distinguish himself, made a premature attack on the insurgents beyond the river. His troops were entangled in narrow streets, and assailed by a furious population. He fell, with many of his men; and the survivors were forced to retire.

undertaken to bear. His revenues, he said, were falling off; his servants were unpaid; he could no longer support the expense of the arrangement which he had sanctioned. Hastings would not listen to these representations. The vizier, he said, had invited the government of Bengal to send him troops, and had promised to pay for them. The troops had been sent. How long the troops were to remain in Oude, was a matter not settled by the treaty. It remained, therefore, to be settled between the contracting parties. But the contracting parties differed. Who then must decide? The strongest.

Hastings also argued that, if the English force was withdrawn, Oude would certainly become a prey to anarchy, and would probably be overrun by a Mahratta army. That the finances of Oude were embarrassed, he adınitted. But he contended, not without reason, that the embarrassment was to be attributed to the incapacity and vices of Asaph-ul-Dowlah himself, and that, if less were spent on the troops, the only effect would be that more would be squandered on worthless favourites.

This event produced the effect which has never failed to follow every check, however slight, sustained in India by the English arms. For hundreds of miles round, the whole country was in commotion. The entire population of the district of Benares took arms. The fields were abandoned by the husbandmen, who thronged to defend their prince. The infection spread to Oude. The oppressed people of that province rose up against the nabob vizier, refused to pay their imposts, and put the revenue of ficers to flight. Even Bahar was ripe for revolt. The hopes of Cheyte Sing began to rise. Instead of imploring mercy in the humble style of a vassal, he began to talk the language of a conqueror, and threatened, it was said, to sweep the white usurpers out of the land. But the English troops were now assembling fast. The officers, and even the private men, regarded the governor-general with enthusiastic attachment, and flew to his aid with an alacrity which, as he boasted, had never been shown on any other occasion. Major Popham, a brave and skilful soldier, who had highly distinguished himself in the At first sight it might appear impossible that the Mahratta war, and in whom the governor-general re-negotiation should come to an amicable close. Hasposed the greatest confidence, took the command. tings wanted an extraordinary supply of money. The tumultuary army of the rajah was put to rout. Asaph-ul-Dowlah wanted to obtain a remission of His fastnesses were stormed. In a few hours, above what he already owed. Such a difference seemed to thirty thousand men left his standard, and returned admit of no compromise. There was, however, one to their ordinary avocations. The unhappy prince course satisfactory to both sides, one course by which fled from his country for ever. His fair domain was it was possible to relieve the finances both of Oude added to the British dominions. One of his relations and of Bengal; and that course was adopted. It indeed was appointed rajah; but the rajah of Benares was simply this-that the governor-general and the was henceforth to be, like the nabob of Bengal, a nabob vizier should join to rob a third party; and mere pensioner. the third party whom they determined to rob was the parent of one of the robbers.

By this revolution, an addition of L.200,000 a-year was made to the revenues of the Company. But the immediate relief was not as great as had been expected. The treasure laid up by Cheyte Sing had been popularly estimated at a million sterling. It turned out to be about a fourth part of that sum; and, such as it was, it was seized and divided as prizemoney by the army.

Hastings had intended, after settling the affairs of Benares, to visit Lucknow, and there to confer with Asaph-ul-Dowlah. But the obsequious courtesy of the nabob vizier prevented this visit. With a small train he hastened to meet the governor-general. An interview took place in the fortress which, from the crest of the precipitous rock of Chunar, looks down on the waters of the Ganges.

The mother of the late nabob, and his wife, who was the mother of the present nabob, were known as the Begums or Princesses of Oude. They had possessed great influence over Sujah Dowlah, and had, at his death, been left in possession of a splendid dotation. The domains of which they received the rents and administered the government were of wide extent. The treasure hoarded by the late nabob-a treasure which was popularly estimated at near three millions sterling-was in their hands. They continued to occupy his favourite palace at Fyzabad, the Beautiful Dwelling; while Asaph-ul-Dowlah held his court in the stately Lucknow, which he had built for himself on the shores of the Goomti, and had adorned with noble mosques and colleges.

Disappointed in his expectations from Benares, Hastings was more violent than he would otherwise have been, in his dealings with Oude. Sujah Dowlah had long been dead. His son and successor, Asaph-ul-Dowlah, was one of the weakest and most vicious even of eastern princes. His life was divided between torpid repose, and the most odious forms of sensuality. In his court there was boundless waste; throughout his dominions wretchedness Asaph-ul-Dowlah had already extorted consideraand disorder. He had been, under the skilful ma- ble sums from his mother. She had at length apnagement of the English government, gradually sink-pealed to the English; and the English had intering from the rank of an independent prince to that of a vassal of the Company. It was only by the help of a British brigade that he could be secure from the aggressions of neighbours who despised his weakness, and from the vengeance of subjects who detested his tyranny. A brigade was furnished; and he engaged to defray the charge of paying and maintaining it. From that time his independence was at an end. Hastings was not a man to lose the advantage which he had thus gained. The nabob soon began to complain of the burden which he had

fered. A solemn compact had been made, by which she consented to give her son some pecuniary assistance, and he in his turn promised never to commit any further invasion of her rights. This compact was formally guaranteed by the government of Bengal. But times had changed; money was wanted; and the power which had given the guarantee was not ashamed to instigate the spoiler.

It was necessary to find some pretext for a confiscation, inconsistent not merely with plighted faithnot merely with the ordinary rules of humanity and

the smallest chance of their escaping, and that their irons really added nothing to the security of the custody in which they were kept. He did not understand the plan of his superiors. Their object in these inflictions was not security but torture; and all mitigation was refused. Yet this was not the worst. It was resolved by an English government that these two infirm old men should be delivered to the tormentors. For that purpose they were removed to Lucknow. What horrors their dungeon there witnessed can only be guessed. But there remains on the records of Parliament this letter, written by a British resident to a British soldier:

Sir, the nabob having determined to inflict corporal punishment upon the prisoners under your guard, this is to desire that his officers, when they shall come, may have free access to the prisoners, and be permitted to do with them as they shall see proper."

While these barbarities were perpetrated at Lucknow, the princesses were still under duresse at Fyzabad. Food was allowed to enter their apartments only in such scanty quantities, that their female attendants were in danger of perishing with hunger. Month after month this cruelty continued, till, at length, after twelve hundred thousand pounds had been wrung out of the princesses, Hastings began to think that he had really got to the bottom of their revenue, and that no rigour could extort more. at length the wretched men who were detained at Lucknow regained their liberty. When their irons were knocked off, and the doors of their prison opened, their quivering lips, the tears which ran down their cheeks, and the thanksgiving which they poured forth to the common Father of Mussulmans and Christians, melted even the stout hearts of the English warriors who stood by.

Then

justice-but with that great law of filial piety, which, even in the wildest tribes of savages-even in those more degraded communities which wither under the influences of a corrupt half-civilization retains a certain authority over the human mind. A pretext was the last thing that Hastings was likely to want. The insurrection at Benares had produced disturbances in Oude. These disturbances it was convenient to impute to the Princesses. Evidence for the imputation there were scarcely any; unless reports wandering from one mouth to another, and gaining something by every transmission, may be called evidence. The accused were furnished with no charge; they were permitted to made no defence; for the governor-general wisely considered, that if he tried them, he might not be able to find a ground for plundering them. It was agreed between him and the nabob vizier, that the noble ladies should, by a sweeping measure of confiscation, be stripped of their domains and treasures for the benefit of the Company; and that the sums thus obtained should be accepted by the government of Bengal in satisfaction of its claims on the government of Oude. While Asaph-ul-Dowlah was at Chunar, he was completely subjugated by the clear and commanding intellect of the English statesman. But when they had separated he began to reflect with uneasiness on the engagement into which he had entered. His mother and grandmother protested and implored. His heart, deeply corrupted by absolute power and licentions pleasures, yet not naturally unfeeling, failed him in this crisis. Even the English resident at Lucknow, though hitherto devoted to Hastings, shrank from extreme measures. But the governorgeneral was inexorable. He wrote to the resident in terms of the greatest severity, and declared that, if the spoliation which had been agreed upon were not instantly carried into effect, he would himself go to There is a man to whom the conduct of Hastings, Lucknow, and do that from which feebler minds re- through the whole of these proceedings, appears not coiled with dismay. The resident, thus menaced, only excusable but laudable. There is a man who waited on his highness, and insisted that the treaty tells us, that he must really be pardoned if he venof Chunar should be carried into full and immediate tures to characterize as something pre-eminently ridieffect. Asaph-ul-Dowlah yielded-making at the culous and wicked, the sensibility which would same time a solemn protestation, that he yielded to balance against the preservation of British India a compulsion. The lands were resumed; but the little personal suffering, which was applied only so treasure was not so easily obtained. It was neces- long as the sufferers refused to deliver up a portion of sary to use force. A body of the Company's troops that wealth, the whole of which their own and their marched to Fyzabad, and forced the gates of the pa- mistresses' treason had forfeited.' We cannot, we lace. The princesses were confined to their own must own, envy the reverend biographer, either his apartments. But still they refused to submit. Some singular notion of what constitutes pre-eminent wickmore stringent mode of coercion was to be found. Aedness, or his equally singular perception of the premode was found, of which, even at this distance of eminently ridiculous. Is this the generosity of an time, we cannot speak without shame and sorrow. English soldier? Is this the charity of a Christian There were at Fyzabad two ancient men belong-priest? Could neither of Mr. Gleig's professions ing to that unhappy class which a practice of immemorial antiquity in the East has excluded from the pleasures of love, and from the hope of posterity. It has always been held in Asiatic courts, that beings thus estranged from sympathy with their kind are those whom princes may most safely trust. Sujah Dowlah had been of this opinion. He had given his entire confidence to the two eunuchs; and after his death they remained at the head of the household of his widow.

These men were, by the orders of the British government, seized, imprisoned, ironed, starved almost to death, in order to extort money from the princesses. After they had been two months in confinement, their health gave way. They implored permission to take a little exercise in the garden of their prison. The officer who was in charge of them stated, that if they were allowed this indulgence, there was not

teach him the very rudiments of morality? Or is morality a thing which may be well enough in sermons, but which has nothing to do with biography?

But we must not forget to do justice to Sir Elijah Impey's conduct on this occasion. It was not indeed easy for him to intrude himself into a business so entirely alien from all his official duties. But there was something inexpressibly alluring, we must suppose, in the peculiar rankness of the infamy which was then to be got at Lucknow. He hurried thither as fast as relays of palankin-bearers could carry him. A crowd of people came before him with affidavits against the Begums, ready drawn in their hands. Those affidavits he did not read. The greater part, indeed, he could not read; for they were in Persian and Hindostanee, and no interpreter was employed. He administered the oath to the deponents, with all possible expedition; and asked not a single question,

not even whether they had perused the statements to which they swore. This work performed, he got again into his palankin, and posted back to Calcutta, to be in time for the opening of term. The cause was one which, by his own confession, lay altogether out of his jurisdiction. Under the charter of justice, he had no more right to inquire into crimes committed by natives in Oude, than the Lord President of the Court of Session of Scotland to hold an assize at Exeter. He had no right to try the Begums, nor did he pretend to try them. With what object, then, did he undertake so long a journey? Evidently in order that he might give, in an irregular manner, that sanction which in a regular manner he could not give, to the crimes of those who had recently hired him; and in order that a confused mass of testimony which he did not sift, which he did not even read, might acquire an authority not properly belonging to it, from the signature of the highest judicial functionary in India.

1

war had ceased., Hyder was no more. A treaty had been concluded with his son, Tippoo; and the Carnatic had been evacuated by the armies of Mysore. Since the termination of the American war, England had no European enemy or rival in the Eastern seas. On a general review of the long administration of Hastings, it is impossible to deny that, against the great crimes by which it is blemished, we have to set off great public services. England had passed through a perilous crisis. She still, indeed, maintained her place in the foremost rank of European powers; and the manner in which she had defended herself against fearful odds, had inspired surrounding nations with a high opinion both of her spirit and of her strength. Nevertheless, in every part of the world, except one, she had been a loser. Not only had she been compelled to acknowledge the independence of thirteen colonies peopled by her children, and to conciliate the Irish by giving up the right of legislating for them; but, in the Mediterranean, in the Gulf of Mexico, on the coast of Africa, on the continent of America, she had been compelled to cede the fruits of her victories in former wars. Spain regained Minorca and Florida; France regained Senegal, Goree, and several West India islands. The only quarter of the world in which Britain had lost nothing, was the quarter in which her interests had been committed to the care of Hastings. In spite of the utmost exertions both of European and Asiatic enemies, the power of our country in the East had been greatly augmented. Benares was subjected; the nabob vizier reduced to vassalage. That our influence had been thus extended,

The time was approaching, however, when he was to be stripped of that robe which has, never since the Revolution, been disgraced so foully as by him. The state of India had for some time occupied much of the attention of the British parliament. Towards the close of the American war, two committees of the Commons sat on Eastern affairs. In the one Edmund Burke took the lead. The other was under the presidency of the able and versatile Henry Dundas, then Lord Advocate of Scotland. Great as are the changes which, during the last sixty years, have taken place in our Asiatic dominions, the reports which those committees laid on the table of the House will still be found most interesting and in-nay, that Fort William and Fort St. George had not structive.

There was as yet no connexion between the Company and either of the great parties in the state. The ministers had no motive to defend Indian abuses. On the contrary, it was for their interest to show, if possible, that the government and patronage of our Oriental empire might, with advantage, be transferred to themselves. The votes, therefore, which, in consequence of the reports made by the two committees, were passed by the Commons, breathed the spirit of stern and indignant justice. The severest epithets were applied to several of the measures of Hastings, especially to the Rohilla war; and it was resolved, on the motion of Mr. Dundas, that the Company ought to recall a governor-general who had brought such calamities on the Indian people, and such dishonour on the British name. An act was passed for limiting the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The bargain which Hastings had made with the Chief Justice was condemned in the strongest terms; and an address was presented to the king, praying that Impey might be ordered home to answer for his misdeeds.

Impey was recalled by a letter from the Secretary of State. But the proprietors of India stock resolutely refused to dismiss Hastings from their service; and passed a resolution affirming, what was undeniably true, that they were entrusted by law with the right of naming and removing their governor-general; and that they were not bound to obey the directions of a single branch of the legislature with respect to such nomination or removal.

Thus supported by his employers, Hastings remained at the head of the government of Bengal till the spring of 1785. His administration, so eventful and stormy, closed in almost perfect quiet. In the council there was no regular opposition to his measures. Peace was restored to India. The Mahratta

been occupied by hostile armies, was owing, if we may trust the general voice of the English in India, to the skill and resolution of Hastings.

His internal administration, with all its blemishes, gives him a title to be considered as one of the most remarkable men in our history. He dissolved the double government. He transferred the direction of affairs to English hands. Out of a frightful anarchy, he educed at least a rude and imperfect order. The whole organization by which justice was dispensed, revenue collected, peace maintained, throughout a territory not inferior in population to the dominions of Louis the Sixteenth, or of the Emperor Joseph, was created and superintended by him. He boasted that every public office, without exception, which existed when he left Bengal was his work. It is quite true that this system, after all the improvements suggested by the experience of sixty years, still needs improvement; and that it was at first far more defective than it now is. But whoever seriously considers what it is to construct from the beginning the whole of a machine so vast and complex as a government, will allow that what Hastings effected deserves high admiration. To compare the most celebrated European ministers to him, seems to us as unjust as it would be to compare the best baker in London with Robinson Crusoe; who, before he could bake a single loaf, had to make his plough and his harrow, his fences and his scarecrows, his sickle and his flail, his mill and his oven.

The just fame of Hastings rises still higher, when we reflect that he was not bred a statesman; that he was sent from school to a counting-house; and that he was employed during the prime of his manhood as a commercial agent, far from all intellectual society.

Nor must we forget that all, or almost all, to whom, when placed at the head of affairs, he could apply